Let's go viral - at least give it a try ;)

This is the video I have created as a part of my New Media module at Univeristy of Westminster. Unfortunately I have never had much luck with Windows Movie Maker and the version which did not 'get crashed' has some spelling mistakes and is not perfectly edited.

Nevertheless, I hope you will like it.

Politicians sold like cornflakes

When in 1989 House of Commons proceedings became televised for the first time, the commissioned research showed that when appearing on TV 55% of the impression made by a person derives from his image. Body language and voice scored 38%. Astonishingly as less as 7% depended on what the person was actually saying.

Such findings were the grounds for development of a new trend in British politics where voters are regarded less as citizens and more as consumers while political causes and candidates are promoted and sold in the same way that advertising campaigns sell cars, fashions or drugs. Bob Franklin described this phenomenon as ‘packaging politics’.

 Packaging of the politics is becoming central to processes of governance.  Some argue that telegenic politicians and soundbites have supplemented the rational and sustained advocacy of policy. What are the reasons behind this? Certainly plenty of them – one of the most significant though is the changing media environment. Broadcast media can communicate less information than print and airtime as a scarce resource has forced politicians to craft their programmes into <soundbites>, which can be slotted into ninety– second news items.

The victory of <style> over <content> is evident. Voters choose in the ballot box in much the similar way as consumers choose in the marketplace. The prettier, the better.  Image building became crucial in the contemporary world of political campaigns because of publics’ general lack of motivation to search for information when making voting decisions. . This gave rise to so called ‘cult of personality’. Party leaders are more and more often selected for an attractive image they project on television. This in turn leads to  trivializing politics. To fulfill the demands of infotainment culture, gaffs by politicians paradoxically become the headlines and receive wide coverage in national news. The coverage from parliament focuses on sensational and dramatic aspects of proceedings. In this regard it is not surprising that respect for politics diminishes.

On the second side, mass public, bored with elaborate deliberations of past generation of politicians, finds modern elections, which become the choice between the personalities rather than policies, more exciting.  However, the history of Labour spin with the lowest turnout of electorate in 2001 elections proves that the emphasis on presidentialism, soundbites and presentation causes electorate’s disenchantment with the political process. I think that just as advertising is off putting to people similarly politics using same tactics diminishes people’s respect to this domain of social life.

Do you think that PR is to be blamed by that? It is fair to say that deep access to policy making deprives PR? From being an honest and open tool of communication with audiences and stakeholders does it become a mean of public manipulation ?

Let's talk about dodgy stuff...

 The case against lobbying is that primarily reach, corporate interests can afford using their services. In the same time disadvantaged and marginal groups who cannot afford lobbyist’s services are barely hearable. Even Moloney admitted that the principal use of lobbying in UK has been to maintain public policy in favour of powerful, corporate interest.

Lobbying defined shortly means influencing government policy making on behalf of various groups and interests in the society who seek policy advantage. There are two distinctive types of lobbying: ‘insider lobbying’ done primarily by powerful corporate interests inside the offices of officials. ‘Outsider lobbying’ is done by attracting media attention and thus imposing pressure on policy makers. The former, considered as more effective, poses a challenge to the transparency of policy making since its ‘behind close doors’ environment creates a danger of corrupting politicians. Professional lobbyists would gladly mention their personal connections with policy makers. The enthusiasm to disclose such ties would not be shared by the second side. It is undeniable that lobbying requires access to politicians to communicate the values and agendas put forward by the various interest groups. There is, however, a crucial balance that needs to be maintained in these relationships to avoid illegality or favoritisms. 

 Relationship between MPs and lobbyist has recently become a subject to public scrutiny in UK and few recent scandals damaged the reputation of the lobbying industry. First came the Guardian disclosure of ambiguous relationship between State Secretary for Defense Liam Fox and his best man Adam Werritty. The latter, although not officially employed as civil servant, accompanied Fox on numerous official trips, attended  meetings with foreign dignitaries and was an common visitor in Ministry of Defense. Those uncertain ties between two men led to questions over Werritty’s income and his ties with corporate interest seeking policy advantage and access to secretary of state. Those allegations led to Fox’s resignation. 

Shortly after, Independent investigative efforts revealed a tape where executives from one of the largest Uk’s PR firm, Bell Pottinger boast about their access to top policy makers and dark arts they use to bury bad coverage and influence the media agenda.

                                                      

 Only recently, Tory party co-treasurer  was recorded by ‘The Sunday Times’ offering undercover journalists posing as Lichtenstein executives access to the prime minster for a donation of £250,000.

                                   

All of those led to calls for industry’s regulation with strict register of lobbyists and officials publishing schedule and content of their meetings with lobbyists. Conversely, useful addition to any code of conduct would be lobbyist’s obligation to publish a diary of meetings they arrange with decision makers. What other measures do you think should be introduced to regulate the lobbying industry?

 

Emotions management – who does it better that us, women?

There is a preconception in the society that fast paced and highly competitive industries are dominated by men. Why? Becouse of another, even deeper rooted preconception about male actual brain functions make them more resistant and in fact more efficient in those ‘dog eat dog’ industries.

Taking this, how do we explain the apparent domination of women in PR, profession ranked as second most stressful jobs right after commercial pilot? There must be real, tangible reasons for this domination of females in highly competitive industry which PR is.

                                                             EMOTIONAL LABOUR

'Go the extra mile to prove that you understand their business. Work them out as individuals too – what kind of people are they? What gets them excited? Flirt with them before the pitch by offering them some opportunities. Above all else, be enthusiastic and passionate' (CIPR, 2009).

Above is a direct quotation from guidelines for handling PR agencies’ clients published by Chartered Institute of Public Relations. The associations with female values are immediate.

 According to feminist theory of public relations, female values are intrinsic to successful public relations practice. It does, indeed seem like a very reasonable argument, that values associated with femininity like honesty, justice and sensitivity enhance symmetrical, two way communication paradigm of ideal public relations. Solving conflicts and building relationships crucial for PR practice – who can do this better than those who came from Venus?
It is quite apparent that ‘public relations agencies consciously and instrumentally deploy emotional labour as a resource, mostly performed by female consultants, to win and keep clients.’(Yeomas, 2003). Some PR scholars argue that employers prefer to recruit women to public relations because it “increasingly involves emotional labour” and emotion work was is seen as women’s domain. They are believed to have better communication skills, be more sympathetic and better listeners.

                                            UNAVOIDABLE GENDER PAY GAP?

Apparently in 1980s the PR industry was highly dominated by men with 80% of male in the industry. Nowadays the roles have reversed with women at 60% - 70%. The rapid feminisation of public relations which started in this period was a cause of concern that increasing number of women in PR would drive down salaries of all practitioners.  Although salaries in general did not decline, women’s salaries, despite of industry dominance, are lower than men’s (according to PR Week opinion survey, 2002). Men hold higher positions to women in both agencies and in house, especially in  higher-paying public relations jobs such as financial, industrial, or retail services (5% difference according to PR week survey, 2002).

Mischievious clones of Bernays take over the world!

I invite you all to watch video which me and my friends from Univeristy of Westminster - Ioana and Nesanet, created as part of the course work. With this funny story, we aim at proving that despite bad reputation PR is good for the society.

I hope you will enjoy it =D

The birth of cyberactivism!

When you get overwhelmed by doubts if PR is good for democracy (e.g. when you write dissertation about PR in politics as I do) think about activists groups who use PR to popularize their causes and exert pressure on corporate giants. Yes, PR is good for democracy!

Activism enables not-dominant interests in society to articulate their arguments in the public sphere. PR acts as megaphone in this process, by providing campaigning organizations with ‘oxygen of publicity’. It makes their messages audible in media getting them across to wider public in order to create  awareness or persuade people to change their behavior. The activism contradicts the argument about citizen’s apathy. In UK there are approximately one million members of political parties comparing to 5 million people paying membership fee to the environmental organizations.  

When it comes to effects for PR profession, those are two sided. From one point of view activists groups are a challenge for PRs working for corporations often confronted by campaigners. On the second side the nongovernmental sector employs PR people too.  The causes undertook by campaigners are often controversial and thus newsworthy which attracts other companies to align with certain activist group in order to generate positive media coverage. Moreover, even celebrities approach the organizations or pressure groups.

 

 In the same time pressure groups have become one of the most important stakeholders which companies need to consider and conduct a dialogue with to secure their financial profitability. Here is the role for Consensus orientated public relations. However when pressure groups act against corporate interest of companies, the former sometimes hire the PR consultancies to discredit them, which is often successful due to limited financial resources and PR skill base of pressure groups.

However internet which brought about the cyberactivism has significantly changed this landscape, shifting the advantage towards pressure groups that use social media to disseminate their messages, recruit members and spread the debate. Apart from this, World Wide Web has provided the pressure groups with ample set of campaigning tools allowing them to put pressure on businesses by disrupting their internet presence. Some of those tools like site attack or hacking (often manifested by accessing companies emailing system and company discrediting messages to its customers) are recruited from legal borderland. Others sourced by humor include parody sites often more dangerous for companies than hacking as they confuse the public. An example is a false BP twitter account which had been set up after oil spill revelations. It currently has 15,000 followers (comparing to 36,000 followers of official BP twitter account) and its famous tweets inlude:"Think about it this way, the ocean is like root beer and oil is like ice cream. We just made America a giant root beer float!' or "Sadly we can no longer certify our oil as Dolphin Safe."

 A very successful online tactic is creating an image of corporate bully. The recent victim of such activities was BP after oil spill in Mexico gulf. Some other examples include Kit Kat and Princess (UK tuna company) both effectively sabotaged by Greenpeace.

Enjoy some  examples of internet activism below.

Cobra & Python case

Crisis can have a cobra or a python face. 

Cobra will take the company by surprise leaving it in a deep crisis situation. Python on the other hand crawls into the organization gradually as a number of issues, that slowly crush the company's very existence.

This metaphor drawn by authors of the book titled 'Effective crisis management' is a very accurate description of the types of situation the companies might find themselves in.

Although different in nature both, cobra and python, can be mitigated using an effective communication with stakeholders (especially media) and by having a crisis plan in place before the crisis happens. Each company operates in an environment comprising of numerous stakeholders. The interaction of their contradicting interests can often lead to rise of issue and the crisis. Therefore it is extremely important that the companies engage in boundary spanning as an introduction to issues management, which will prevent or at least mitigate negative effects of crisis. There is a 5C effective communication model presenting the priorities for the person acting as the spokesperson in the crisis. The first priority is the Concern which relates to the human aspect of the case. Importance has been also placed on the communication with Clarity, Control of disseminated messages, Confidence and Competence of the spokesperson representing the company.  It is important to recognize the danger of ‘no comment’ method. If the organization in crisis will decide to avoid contact with interested media, they will find other information sources, which in many cases can be even more precarious.

An example of one of the best managed Cobra like crises in the history is the 30 years old case of Johnson & Johnson's product called Tylenol. The product was deliberately contaminated with the cyanide by a member of public which led to death of 7 people. Johnson & Johnson response was prompt and effective both from the operational and communication point of view. It has recalled the product in from the pharmacies in the entire US (although deaths were linked to Chicago district only). In the same time the company was consequently informing the media, employees about all its actions. Its next response was an introduction of 'temper-evident packaging'. The efficiently and swiftly managed crisis has actually positively contributed to the reputation of Johnson & Johnson.  In the aftermath of the crisis an article in Washington Post Newspaper acknowledged that saying:, "Johnson & Johnson has effectively demonstrated how a major business ought to handle a disaster."

There are also numerous cases of badly managed crises with BP oil spill, Toyota’s break-safety and and Canterbury’s salmonella being one of the most notable. Learning from others mistakes is a good and safe school.

PR goes on war

Going on war any time soon? That’s your ‘must –have’ check list: Heavy machinery, tunks, missiles, rackets, artillery, torpedoes and PR. Beg me pardon– Spin not PR.

 Yes, PR has become an essential object for any government leading the nations to war. In this regards, the extraordinary £250 million dollars spend on public relations by Bush administration (double what Clinton spent.) is well justified.  It has been proved that President Bush steered the nation to war using fraudulent intelligence, misleading and misinforming the public.

 I will share just few shocking examples on how US government perfected Propaganda tactics in the runway to the Iraqi war. To set the news agenda the government simply produced the stories. In 2005 it was revealed that White House produced videos that were designed to look like news reports from independent journalists and were then aired on the evening news.  Shocking as it might seem –as revealed by New York Times in 2008 to gain most valuable 3^rd party endorsement government trained the retired military officers to act as independent analyst on talk shows and in news programmes. Growing politicians’ awareness about the role of social media in shaping public opinion prompted Bush administration to contract HBGary Federal to develop software that would create fake social media accounts in order to promote Pentagon propaganda on social networks. 

What could be more mesmerising for the public than a story of 19 year old, blond, innocent girl captured and maltreated by Iraqi soldiers? The publicity opportunity not to be missed. Jessica Lynch was a clerk serving during 2003 invasion. She was injured and captured by Iraqis and subsequently retrieved by US Special Forces. In US people minds she became a heroine who fought until the last gunshot, killing several Iraqi soldiers and survived despite being shot and stabbed. Thanks to independent journalists’ investigation it was revealed that the reports about Jessica’s mistreatment were untrue. As per witnesses’ reports she has received best possible medical care and support form hospital staff. Event more shocking – she did not have any bullet or knife injuries but only broken limbs as an effect of the road accident. US military has fled the hospital despite of their knowledge that at the time there were no Iraqi in the area. Handcuffed doctors recall scenes like from the Hollywood movie:‘. They made a show—an action movie likes Sylvester Stallone or Jackie Chan, with jumping and shouting, breaking down doors’. All that was recorded and aired over and over again on TV as a brilliant propaganda measure to support the war case and ‘raise the morale in the nation’…

htt

 There is nothing wrong with raising the morale of the nation going on war as that’s what makes people feel the common cause. However in the case of Jessica Lynch the government’s aim was to mislead the public and manipulate it into the war. 

Hello blogosphere!

Hmm what am I even doing here? Clumsy and at times unsystematic person setting up a blog. Isn't this a receipt for a blogo-distaster? Starting up a blog is part of my MA Public Relations coursework which forces me challenge my own weaknesses. Herby, I give my word to myself that I will not neglect my FIRST EVER BLOG.

I gave it a title <skeptically insPRed> (yes, it is unfortunate that it is based on the orthographical mistake!). Apart from orthographical mistake, the blog title is an oxymoron (well, I told you this is going to be a disaster!).

So why INSPIRED? I’m fascinated by PR. Not such a long time ago I wasn’t even able to explain what PR really is. I think that many people have a problem with a definition. PR is a craft which overpowered advertising. It took over minds of CEOs worldwide. It created big brands like Apple and helped many companies overcome crisis. Essentially, PR is an embodiment of the idea of open and effective communication.

So why SCEPTICAL? Following the earlier pattern of reasoning: PR took over minds of politicians worldwide. It's unfortunate that the most common form it takes in political communication nowadays is that close to spin and propaganda. As such, it serves political parties as the media manipulation tool. By blurring the boundaries between advertising, marketing and PR, they use it to take over minds of voters by substituting substantive policy content with image and presentation. This is the face of PR which concerns me. At times frustrates.

In my blog I will explore many aspects of PR - its shiny and gloomy face. I will touch on issues related to industry not only with regards to politics but also social media, corporate social responsibility, transparency or crisis management.

I hope that you will find it resourceful and enjoyable!